Coca-Cola Coletivo: Scaling Sustainable Communities

Commitment by

The Coca-Cola Company

In 2013, The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, committed to refine and expand the Coca-Cola Coletivo platform through a $16 million investment across three countries in Latin America and 12 cities in Brazil. This will impact more than 34,000 people in Brazil alone by 2017. This commitment, which is integrated into TCCC's value chain and is co-funded by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund, will enhance opportunities to find employment, create new business enterprises and strengthen the self-confidence of low income residents in affected communities. Coletivo was first launched in Brazil and this new collaboration will include three Coletivo models: Coletivo Retail, which focuses on young people in urban low-income communities who are seeking formal employment; Coletivo Recycling, which targets the professionalization of recycling cooperatives, generating increased income for waste collectors and formalizing the recycling value chain; and Coletivo Entrepreneurship, which provides practical training to begin and strengthen new businesses, with a focus on women.

Tabs

Commitment

Launched

Est. Duration

4 years

Estimated Total Value

$16,000,000

Region

Latin America & Caribbean

Countries

BRAZIL

Commitment by

The Coca-Cola Company

Partner(s) of the Commitment Maker(s)

Inter-American Development Bank

Details

APPROACH
Through a million partnership between The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) and the Inter-American Development Bank, the team will analyze learnings from the current curriculum and methodology to refine the model and enable large-scale expansion and accelerated impact across the region. This enhanced Coca-Cola Coletivo model will be piloted initially across the 12 World Cup host cities in Brazil (Manaus, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Cuiaba, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre) as well as in three additional countries in Latin America that will be determined based on local needs and capacity. Curriculum enhancements will include new teaching methodologies as well as incorporation of virtual platforms. The refined Coletivo program has the potential to increase access to economic opportunity for hundreds of thousands of individuals over time and through further expansion.
The commitment will be implemented through a rigorous analysis of the current Coletivo model to identify additional opportunities to link interventions with TCCC's value chain, supporting employment and business linkages with individuals, SMEs, and cooperatives. Analysis will also include review of the program's alliances with private and public sector organizations as well as institutional capacity building of the executing NGOs and recycling cooperatives. When completed, the new methodology has the potential to impact hundreds of thousands individuals as it is implemented in both existing and new Coletivos.
In its pilot phase in Brazil only, the commitment to refine and expand the Coletivo model will directly impact more than 34,000 people by enhancing access to business opportunities and building the employability skills of 28,000 youth (ages 16-29 and at least 50% women), supporting 1,680 women entrepreneurs to start or grow their business and linking 5,000 individual recyclers in cooperatives to the TCCC value chain and recycling markets.
ACTION PLAN
In order to refine and scale Coca-Cola Coletivo, intensive analysis of the current program is fundamental. This analysis will be conducted by a dedicated internal team and in accordance with the general action plan below.
(i) Component 1 (2014): Analyze community-based development models and The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) value chain potential to expand work in low income communities
The objective is to gather the practical knowledge needed to benchmark the Coletivo model. A project manager will be hired to lead the in-house analysis.
Main deliverable: Analysis of TCCC's value chain identifying linkages opportunities with poor and low income communities and a set of recommendations to improve the model.
(ii) Component 2 (2014): Strengthen the sustainability of the Coletivo model
The objective is to strengthen the Coletivo initiative to become a sustainable model.
Main deliverable: Development of a standardized and sustainable model for Coletivo.
(iii) Component 3 (2014 - 2015): Develop and refine the training modules and pilot the integrated model
The objective is to develop, refine and test the training methodologies as appropriate for each Coletivo.
Main Deliverables: (a) Coletivo First Job: a 'Life Skills module'; a new training program (formatted as an interactive software game) as a new interface of learning; an online platform for youth; (b) Entrepreneurship: new content to empower women entrepreneurs in Coca-Cola's value chain; (c) Recycling: new content for trainings on formalization, cooperative and business management, collection, production flow and logistics, commercialization, service provision and customer service; and (d) test the refined Coletivo model.
(iv) Component 4 (2015 - 2017): Systematize and scale the refined Coletivo model
The objective is to systematize the developed/tested Coletivo model and launch the first stage of the scale strategy in other Latin American countries.
Main Deliverables: the systematization of the Coletivo model, the establishment of a structure and a system for quality control, and implantation of the new model in three countries.
(v) Component 5 (2014 - 2017): Monitoring, evaluation, knowledge and best practice sharing
The objective is to measure the Program's results and document and disseminate the experience.
Main Deliverables: (a) create a KPI dashboard to evaluate the success of the model, track beneficiaries, assess services' performance and effectiveness for strategic decision making and service management; (b) create a guide for the even further replication or scale of the model and methodology; and (c) a regional event to disseminate learning.

Background

Coca-Cola Coletivo was created as a ground-breaking initiative to address persistent lack of access to skills training and employment opportunities in Brazil. Coletivo is a transformational program that tackles some of the most complex root causes of poverty, including lack of access to education and life skills, through linkages across the Coca-Cola value chain. The program provides training and support to community members through locally-relevant approaches with dynamic classroom instruction and practical application. Numerous local community organizations provide auxiliary services, classroom space, as well as educator and participant recruitment. To date, existing Coletivo models have impacted more than 65,000 people in 150 cities across Brazil.
Current modules include: 1) Coletivo First Job: Equips youth with retail skills, entrepreneurial training and increased access to the job market, as well as teaches life skills to prepare youth for their first job; 2) Coletivo Entrepreneurship: Offers targeted training and support to new and current entrepreneurs, the majority of whom are women; and 3) Coletivo Recycling: Improves recycling cooperatives' management and production skills and delivers social services to improve members' quality of life.
The work of Coletivo is particularly critical given the economic and social environment in Brazil. Poverty reduction policies implemented in Brazil have enabled 31 million citizens to enter a growing middle class. At the same time, Brazil remains among the 10 most unequal countries in the world, according to the International Finance Corporation, and the World Bank's 2012 World Development Indicators cite that 21% of Brazilians live below the national poverty line of .50/day. Additional data from the OECD confirms that one out of every five Brazilian youth aged 15-29 is neither employed nor receiving an education. Other Latin American countries face similar challenges, and Coletivo's expansion will spread innovative, community-driven and business-based solutions to the unemployment challenge.

Partnership Opportunities

SEEKING
In the future, additional partners may be sought in the areas of technology, training and best practice sharing.

Progress Reports

March 2015

The Coletivo Recycling project was developed and launched in 2014. To date, Coletivo Recycling has impacted more than 5000 people in 124 cities in Brazil. During the first implementation cycle 223 recycling cooperatives transitioned to the new methodology and 5,000 Cooperative members were impacted across Brazil. The core challenge for Coletivo Recycling is to turn participating recycling cooperatives into growing, thriving businesses generating social impact and facilitating inclusion in the PET value chain. These cooperatives are mostly informal groups of low-income individuals that gather waste from their communities and local dumps, bring it to central points for sorting, and sell it to brokers who, in turn, sell it to recycling plants. To empower the cooperatives in this way, Coletivo Recycling offers coaching tailored to their needs at four different stages of development. A field team visits to monitor their progress and help with issues ranging from life skills to management to operations. Content on gender equality and human rights has also been included as a cross-cutting perspective. Importantly, the program also empowers the cooperatives to access sources of supply and market channels. For example, it is opening doors for the cooperatives to start negotiating with municipalities to provide curbside pick-up under the Brazilian government's new National Waste Policy, which requires all municipalities to offer curbside pick-up service. In 2014, the Instituto Coca-Cola Brasil and Coca-Cola also started reviewing the methodology of other Coletivo models. In 2015, the focus will be on strengthening Coletivo Retail and Entrepreneurship.